Cogency Introduces First Homeplug Wall Adapter For Powerline Home Networking -Manufacturers offered low cost USB-to-HomePlug Wall Adapter Reference Design

-- PR Newswire, 5/13/2002

Cogency Semiconductor today announced the availability of its USB-HomePlug Wall Adapter Reference Design to address the need for low cost, simple to use consumer products that will drive the powerline home networking market. Intended for manufacturers of consumer electronic devices, the comprehensive manufacturing kit reduces time-to-market and ensures a consistent, high-performance product. For consumers, the resulting product is as simple as plugging the wall adapter into an ordinary electrical outlet and a USB port of a computer or electronic device, to share Internet access, files, music, as well as video streams throughout the home.

The USB-HomePlug Wall Adapter turns any electrical outlet into a network port, allowing USB-enabled computers or other electronic devices to easily establish a fully functioning Ethernet-like network throughout the entire home. Unlike other networking technologies the wall adapters require no special wiring, central hub or switch, base-station or CAT-5 wiring to construct the network. The HomePlug-based solution also eliminates the expense and burden of installing cable throughout the home.

"This new design gives home networking and consumer electronic equipment manufacturers the smallest, lowest powered, and most cost effective HomePlug- compatible home networking device available," said Ron Glibbery, CEO and President, Cogency Semiconductor. "We are providing product manufacturers with a complete design that can be efficiently manufactured, UL/FCC approved and HomePlug-certified." Using the reference design, which is based on Cogency's Piranha(TM) chipset, manufacturers can create USB Wall Adapter products that are the footprint of a credit card, and sell to consumers for well under $ 99.

"Cogency's Wall Adapter moves the industry forward in terms of its unique form factor and ability to provide consumers with a simple way of creating a home network," said Tom Reed, President of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. Leading research firms predict that the overall market for home networking will grow from $ 1.4 billion in 2001 to $ 9.2 billion worldwide in 2006. Given expected consumer demand for home networking products, the Continental Automated Buildings Association notes that future home designs will include electric outlets with built-in network capability.

The USB-HomePlug Wall Adapter Reference Design is enabled by Cogency's industry leading Piranha chipset. Piranha is a highly integrated and cost effective HomePlug 1.0 compliant chipset operating at 14 Mb/s, which features low power consumption, easy product integration, and a flexible processor based MAC.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Cogency's USB-HomePlug Wall Adapter Reference Design (RF1100-UWA) is priced at $ 25,000 and consists of two USB-to-HomePlug wall adapters and a complete set of manufacturing support materials: schematics, bill of materials, Gerber files, layout guidelines, Windows device driver, installer, encryption key management application and production test application. The production test application is designed to minimize both test setup and testing time by taking advantage of the onboard production test capabilities of the Piranha chipset. The product is sampling now to early access partners, and general release is planned for third quarter 2002.

PRODUCT DEMONSTRATION

Cogency will demonstrate the USB-HomePlug Wall Adapter, together with its Piranha chipset at the CONNECTIONS 2002 conference, (booths 405 and 407), which will be held May 14-16, 2002 at The Wyndham Anatole, Dallas, TX.

Ron Glibbery, CEO and President, Cogency Semiconductor will speak as an industry expert on the topic "Powerline - Complete Home Connectivity" on Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 10:45am. Details of the conference are available at http://www.connectionsconference.com/

ABOUT COGENCY SEMICONDUCTOR

Cogency designs and markets high-performance semiconductors for the home networking market. Using its extensive expertise in OFDM-based systems and IC- design, Cogency is a leading supplier of semiconductor products based on the HomePlug Powerline Alliance 1.0 specification for powerline home networking. Working closely with industry partners and customers, Cogency's products enable highly integrated and cost-effective system designs. Founded in 1997, Cogency is a privately-held company with offices in Newport Beach, California, Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario. For more information on the company, please visit www.cogency.com.

For more information on the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, see www.homeplug.org. Product images are available at http://www.cogency.com/mr_frame_photo.htm

(C) Copyright 2002 Cogency Semiconductor Inc. All rights reserved. The COGENCY name and logo and PIRANHA are trademarks of Cogency Semiconductor Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

SOURCE Cogency Semiconductor Inc.

CONTACT: Liz Bazini, Verrecchia Group, (514) 935-0166 x151, liz@vergroup.com; Graham Wilson, Cogency Semiconductor Inc., (613) 270-5053, pr@cogency.com

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